Let’s Learn From the Past and Stop Spending the Future

By: Dr. Robert R. Owens

Remember the BP oil spill? We can still learn a few things from that experience.

In the constantly multiplying days since the BP oil spill all we have received from President Obama are many nuanced, vetted, and parsed versions of Bart Simpson’s famous dodge, “I didn’t do it, nobody saw me do it, there’s no way you can prove anything!” Not exactly the change those who voted for the only honest politician fromChicago had hoped for is it? It makes me wonder, is there a sign on the President’s desk that says, “The Buck Stops Over There.” More than three years into a national calamity and only six months away from what we hope will be change in 2013 and Mr. Obama still thinks his fingerprints aren’t on anything except the levers of imperial power and a big arrow that points toCrawford,Texas.

In his first address to the nation from the Oval Office President Obama sounded like a professor lecturing his self-indulgent students as to why they failed their test because they didn’t study, “It’s a bad result but it’s your fault.” BP was responsible for the leaking oil because they are greedy capitalists, but America was responsible because we use more oil than we possess or are allowed to produce parroting the falsehood, “We consume more than 20% of the world’s oil, but have less than 2% of the world’s oil reserve.” Mr. Obama went so far as to blame Mother Nature falsely saying “And that’s part of the reason oil companies are drilling a mile beneath the surface of the ocean — because we’re running out of places to drill on land and in shallow water.”

The safest place to drill for oil is on land and we have proven reserves in ANWAR a region that was specifically set aside for drilling, but the Green Police who now rule the nation won’t allow it. There are also proven reserves in shallow water but the Green Police once again wag their petulant finger in denial. We are drilling in the most dangerous places almost asking for a disaster because our ineffectual unrealistic leader and his fellow travelers would rather invest billions more on green technology in the hopes of creating green jobs.

Acting as Venture Socialists, the Progressives our President represents have been investing billions of our tax dollars for decades in windmills and solar panels, and they still aren’t viable. And if Spain, the world’s leader in creating Green Jobs is any indication for every green job produced 2.5 private sector jobs are lost and most green jobs are either non-producing government jobs or temporary. Where’s the leadership? Our government has told us for forty years that they have been trying to achieve energy independence. Now we know we have the reserves to make that a reality and what has our leader led us to? President Obama has managed to lead us from a recession into The Great Recession. Which at least qualifies as following the advice of a cartoon characters or as Hank Hill said to his near-do-well son, “Bobby, if you’re gonna do something wrong, do it right!”

Everyday drip, drip, drip another assault on American traditions another insult to the American people as our President bows to foreign potentates or apologizes for our history. His poll numbers show this is wearing thin. Even the shills over at MSNBC have begun to question the leadership of President Obama, “What are we trying to do in this administration? Why does he want a second term? Would he tell us? What’s he going to do in his second term, more of this? Is this it? Is this as good as it gets? Where are we going?” If this is leadership, as Dilbert once observed, don’t step in it.

Having spent the better part of two decades teaching, I thought I had heard every excuse ever to grace the mind of an evasion artist. I’ve heard everything from “I know its plagiarized but I didn’t have time to check over the work of the guy I hired to write my paper,” to “I didn’t know that no late submissions accepted meant I couldn’t turn in work after the due date.” And in the comedy series category I have heard 8,000 versions of “Bill Gates ate my homework.” However, as creative as some of those have been President Obama’s endless variations of “George Bush did it” has now become the all-time longest running excuse. Evasion isn’t leadership just as saying something doesn’t make it true.

Now Mr. Obama is telling us he is a fiscal conservative and a budget cutting tightfisted economically conservative red white and blue deficit hawk. After three years of FDR on steroids we are supposed to believe he is really Calvin Coolidge, Ronald Reagan, and scrooge McDuck all rolled up in one. Then again it isn’t class warfare; it is making sure everyone pays their fair share except of course for his supporters who pay nothing. It isn’t helping establish Islamist regimes throughout the Middle East; it is supporting democracy. And, oh yes, it isn’t out-of-control spending; it is investing in our future. I guess since we’re investing in the future it makes sense to spend the incomes of our great great grandchildren. Can anyone say taxation without representation?

The continual fog of political spin and deception is poisoning the already fractured dialog betweenAmerica’s citizens and their perpetually re-elected representatives. This lead from behind, managing the decline transformation ofAmericahas got to stop. Just as no one ever gets to step into the same river twice no one gets to live in the country they grew up in because the times they are a changing. But what we are experiencing today is not normal change. This is a top down revolution that is designed to transformAmericainto a social democracy.

Evading the problems will not make them go away. We have got to face up to the hard choices that need to be made. Are we all going to silently follow as we are led over a cliff? Or are we going to stand for something before we fall for nothing. What we need is someone who will tell us the truth: “We’re broke.” We need someone who will stand for limited government, personal liberty, and economic opportunity. We need someone who will stand up and be counted not someone who counts on others standing up to do the job so they can buy votes by expropriating the hard-earned fruit of their labor to pass the wealth around.

We don’t need another four years of evasion and trickery. We need to take a long hard look at the dire situation these Progressives have created, and then we need to plan ahead, put our nose to the grindstone, and work our way out of this hole. Or as Hank Hill said, “If you plan ahead, then when things happen, you’re prepared for them.”